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“I certainly believe in my heart and in my gut that in world class cities they build subways underground. You don’t rip up existing streets and make traffic even worse,” he told reporters outside the Kipling subway station.

And he says they can be built without raising taxes. A Tory government would take over the Toronto Transit Commission.

Doug Holyday, the Tory candidate in the Aug. 1 provincial byelection in Etobicoke-Lakeshore couldn’t agree more, even though the deputy mayor voted against a feasibility study for a subway extension into Scarborough.

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Holyday conceded that governments of all stripes and all levels have dropped the ball on subway construction.

“If government would have built a little bit of subway every year . . . If they had done it 30 years ago we would probably be well on our way right now,” he said.

Holyday said the $5 tax on each household in Toronto to help pay for the Scarborough line is a start, but says the provincial and federal governments have to pony up as well.

Holyday says he would like to see the subway eventually completed to Sherway Gardens.

“If there was one further west a lot more people might use the subway,” he said.

Hudak said Ontario has a $130 billion budget “so are you telling me you can’t find 1.5 cents on every dollar that you spend?”

“Subways . . . are the right thing to do and it’s better for jobs,” he said.

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